Asphixiate
by symphony22
Summary: 3 years after the defeat of Sephiroth, the world is finally getting back on its feet. However, when Shin-Ra gets word of sinister happenings at North Crater, they enlist an unlikely group to aid them in their fight once again. Z/C


**Note**: I started writing FFVII fics about four years ago, winter 2003/2004, before any other parts of the compilation were released to the public. While this story has been revised and edited to fit my writing style as of this time, I have not changed any of the content, meaning, this does not follow the full compilation storyline. I do realize this, and yes, I do know that there have been many a character introduced since the first FFVII came out. However, I do not care. If you'd like to flame me for this anyway, go right ahead. I'll laugh, I'll point, but I will not retaliate. I'm not easily provoked. Anyone else, I hope you enjoy.

**Disclaimer**: I have all but nothing to my name, save an ipod classic and this 2007 Toshiba sitting on my lap. I'd like to think I have the claims to anything Squeenix, but in all honesty, even the games I've purchased are no longer in my possession.

**Rating**: M eventually for adult content. Knowing me, this will get disturbing at times, and I will not be responsible for children going off the deep end because of it. If you don't think you should be here, you probably shouldn't.

**Pairings**: Zack/Cloud, in that order. Others TBA

**Asphyxiate**

**By: Symphony**

**Chapter I**

The low growl of an engine filled his ears, invading his mind, leaving him blank and numb. He felt the rumble of Ookami beneath him, his hands gripping the leather on the end of the handlebars tighter as he let go of the clutch, the bike spurring to life. Dirt and rocks flew up behind the back tire, scattering in all directions as he pulled his legs up and let the motorcycle take him away from the barren land of what once was a thriving mako reactor. It smelled of leather, dirt and blood.

A smell with which he was intimately familiar.

The road before him was nothing but mud and gravel, an endless desert wasteland that led to a city that wasn't in much better shape.

He felt the vibration of a small black device against his hip for the third time in only a handful of minutes. However, he didn't reach down for the phone clipped to the pocket of his pants, just continued to let it ring. He already knew what the text message that would flash across the screen would say, did not need to read the words again to understand their meaning. And while he knew those who were so desperately trying to get a hold of him would stop in their pursuit if he would only answer them back, he felt no need to communicate with them just yet.

"Keep calling Reeve," he muttered to himself, a small smirk gracing his delicate features, "I have no problem turning around and tossing the phone into the reactor."

Wind blew blonde hair back out of mako-glowing blue eyes. It had been quite some time since the desert had seen one such as Cloud Strife.

But nature had no problem accommodating to the hero.

--

New Midgar looked and felt exactly like the city from which its architecture was based. Almost perfectly round, its diameter a long runway of subway cars, its sectors divided from its social classes. Though now most of the people who took up residence were refugees unable to afford to move away from the city, or those who had stayed behind to help clean up. The plate, however, had not been rebuilt, and the sectors were now exposed to an amount of sunlight that was almost dangerous for the people at first. Flowers grew in places other than the church where the last human ancient had lived, and crime was no longer an ignored commodity.

At the very center, a tall building--gray, stone, imposing--stood in proud stance against a racing wind. Sixty-nine stories high, what had once been the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company building seemed to be the only thing left untouched in the relief efforts to expand the growing health of New Midgar. It had also been the only thing completely intact when Sephiroth, Jenova and Meteor had swept through the city like a hurricane.

Cloud felt his eyes roll before he even realized he was performing the annoyed gesture after he read the absurd Shin-Ra logo across the front entrance of the building. He left Ookami parked in the small front parking lot--the Ultima Sword strapped tightly down--before walking up to the doors, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, preparing himself for something he'd been putting off for some time now.

New Midgar smelled no better than the mako reactor had, maybe even worse for the sewage and litter problem the city was still encountering. But the blonde man liked to think that Shin-Ra was the real reason for the putrid stench, and those that still worked closely with them.

It was bad enough that he'd once been associated directly with the company, especially its group of highly trained assassins.

"Soldiers my ass." He remembered saying once during his long journey to defeat the man that had once been his hero.

Everyone's hero.

_You're the hero now._

He shook that thought away, though he knew it had not been his own. The voices were familiar to him now. Familiar and unavoidable.

Taking a deep breath, Cloud walked up the steps to the glass doors, peering in at the many bustling bodies going about Shin-Ra's business inside. The brass handles were cold to the touch, and Cloud's hand wrapped around one to swing one of the massive doors open, stepping into the building without further hesitation.

At one time, he would not have been able to walk into this place so freely. He remembered the high security, the cameras and staff that were always watching. Now, as he looked around him and saw that not one person noticed his entrance, it was clear that security was lacking.

The information desk had been rebuilt in the last three years, as had much of the lobby, leaving it less intimidating to the people of Midgar. Above his head, Cloud could see the massive tapestry that had been hung almost a year after Shin-Ra had reopened. He winced as the words written there came more into focus.

**Shin-Ra Executive Building**

**BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP**

**WE'RE HERE TO MEET YOUR NEEDS**

"Once a liar…" He let his words trail off, lost for a moment in his own thoughts of betrayal. Leaving those thoughts behind, he made his way over to the information desk with feigned ease, though his stomach was twisting in disgusted knots.

_This place still makes you uncomfortable. Even though they've apologized. Even though they all adore you now._

Cloud ignored the voice, opting to nod in recognition to one of the receptionists that smiled at him excitedly. She was practically bouncing toward him, and he had the distinct image of her heavily made-up face rearranging itself on her head.

"Hello, Mr. Strife, sir. Can I help you with something?"

"I'm just here to see Reeve. Is he in today?" He tried to keep as polite as he was able.

"Yes, actually. He's in a meeting right now though. Would you like me to page him?"

"Just… tell him I'll meet him in his office when he's finished."

"Will do, sir."

"Thank you."

There. Quick and mostly painless. Cloud turned on his heel and strode toward the elevators, certain the young receptionist would relay his message to Reeve and he would have enough time to steel himself against whatever it was the executive would need of him this time. The glass doors opened before he was able to push the button and a group of employees filed out, none of which he recognized, most of which recognized him. He nodded to them, keeping quiet as per his nature and sliding into the elevator without much more of a scene.

He watched the floors disappear in a moment, counting with the elevator's automated voice as he kept rising up the building.

23, 24, 25... 51, 52, 53

Reeve's office was located on the 57th floor, and the elevator gave a small ding in warning before the doors slid open, whining in protest of the action. The whitewashed walls of the building made him sick to his stomach, and he avoided looking at them as much as possible, stopping at the end of the hall and turning the handle to step into the office.

And there, sitting at his large oak desk with his head resting on his upturned palm, was Reeve Tuesti. The Shin-Ra executive looked as if he was about ready to fall asleep sitting up, eyelids drooping comically and head nodding on his neck. Though when the door closed behind Cloud, he jerked awake and looked up with wide eyes.

Reeve sighed in relief when he saw who was standing before him.

"I thought you were in a meeting," Cloud said, walking up to the desk and seating himself in one of the cushioned chairs in front of Reeve.

"I am. It doesn't end for another twenty minutes." The brunette eyed him while straightening up a few of the scattered legal papers strewn across his desk.

"So what am I doing here?"

The question seemed to change the easy atmosphere around them--though Cloud had never felt "easy" in this building--and Reeve's lazy smile turned down. The brunette stared at his hands for a long moment, pausing, it seemed, to steady himself, to breathe. The fighter didn't quite no what to make of the action, but he opted to stay quiet, to let Reeve collect his nerves.

He had known before he even stepped foot in the building that this could not be good. He'd come to expect that from Shin-Ra.

"We need to talk… about something." Reeve's words were spoken just above a whisper, as if, the executive was afraid of eavesdroppers.

_Or something else._

A sharp pain shot through Cloud at the sound of that voice; a reminder, he knew. Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, he closed his eyes for a moment against the flash of light behind his lids, before shaking it off.

Reeve was staring at him worriedly when he looked back up.

"Are you alright?" The brunette asked.

"Fine," was the answer, "stop skirting around the damn issue."

Reeve sighed in resignation, nodding. He swallowed heavily and reached for a stack of papers laying near the end of his desk, picking them up and straightening them meticulously before holding them out for Cloud to take.

"What's this," the blonde fighter asked.

"What I need to talk to you about…"

The words were cryptic, and their gazes never met even as Cloud was searching Reeve's face for some clue as to what was going on. The papers were heavier than he'd anticipated, and they landed on his lap with a weight he wasn't fully certain came from the papers themselves.

The content worried him.

He looked down and read the first line of the title page.

"Experiment 263? Reeve, what are you getting at?"

"There are things that we've… I've… been meaning to tell you. But I didn't want to say anything if it didn't end up working out." Reeve leaned back in his leather, executive's chair and his eyes came up to meet Cloud's, his look imploring the blonde to understand.

Cloud had a distinct feeling this wasn't just another mercenary mission he was needed for.

"Experiment 263 has nothing to do with you, exactly…" Reeve paused to take a deep breath. "But it has everything to do with… Zack Fair."

--

He was cold, his limbs freezing, pins and needles sliding in through his very pores. He was hyperaware of his own body, of the way his pulse beat against the inside of his skull and his lungs filling with noxious air that burned all the way down his chest.

His eyes itched, watered behind their lids. But he wasn't able relieve them as his wrists were tied--felt like leather--to the cold, hard platform he'd been laid across.

_He's waking up._

The voice was muffled, as if he was hearing it through a deep layer of water, and when he opened his mouth to speak back he found his jaw wasn't working. He tried--couldn't think straight--to tell his bones to move, but his attempts were in vain.

_He's waking up. Quick._

The room seemed to explode in a flurry of disconnected sound. Doors opened, buttons were pushed, the beeping of a heart monitor startled him with it's closeness, spiking in frequency when his pulse jumped in panic.

_This is amazing._

What was amazing? What were the voices talking about?

"Zack?"

His name, he remembered suddenly.

"Zack, we're going to take your breathing tube out. On the count of three, I need you to cough really hard for me."

It was nice, hearing someone address him so politely now.

After everything that had happened.

"One."

Sephiroth. Nibelheim.

"Two."

Cloud. Hojo. The lab. The escape.

"Three."

His world erupted in a brilliant white flash of pain.


End file.
